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Gaymers (Post 49)

A term has been flitting across my vision field over the last little few weeks on the internet and it is — GAYMER. Instantly, it’s easy to see what the word means: gamers, but you know – like – gay ones.

I find this concept so interesting. Whenever a movement gets more and more freedom and more and more traction different subgroups of that movement start to pop up. Sometimes even unlikely ones like, “Log Cabin Republicans” or maybe even like the new world of GAYMERS.

It got me thinking about my own history with gaming. I don’t want to date myself, but feck it – here goes… My first video game system was a Colecovision with an Atari convertor. So, I could play both Atari and Coleco games from one system. My brother, who is about 5 years younger than me, graduated to a Playstation and then eventually, a Playstation 2. I probably played the most video games that I ever have with my brother. I think we enjoyed playing them together.

Sorry, but this was cool sh*t when it came out…

And don’t make fun of my Colecovision initiation…

I mean, for feck’s sake, when I was a kid-kid ARCADES were still around. I spent a lot of time drilling a hole through a quarter and attaching it to a string so I could play longer. (C’mon, you know you did that…or wanted to.)

However, my bro was of the new generation where you gamed – solely – in your house. You built a boy-man-cave in your basement and you played. I have a distinct memory of playing Grand Theft Auto in my parent’s basement with my brother. That was the first time that I had seen the evolution of video games. I was like, “What in the feck is this? There’s like 18,000 ways you could play this thing…” My brother walked me through some of them, as he demonstrated his absolute ease with what looked to me like NASA ground control smooshed into a handheld device. Let’s face it, Coleco had like a (joy)stick and one button.

This creature is better at using this controller than me…

Nothing about Grand Theft Auto bothered us. Here we were – two gaymers, I suppose – hitting the sticks (entendre noted and continuing…) in the basement of my parent’s house. Was it violent? Probably. Were there any chicks in the game doing anything other then yelping and busting out of their corset tops? Probably not. We didn’t care. The thing was just plain fun.

I don’t play a lot of video games right now because, quite frankly, I would completely lose my life. I envision the movie Prime where Uma Thurman’s relationship with her much younger boyfriend goes down the toilet when she gets him a Playstation for his birthday or worse still, this intense article I read on video game addiction. One of those things would happen to me. I’m too competitive and I’d spend all my time trying to beat my score (or somebody else’s) and I’d stop looking for jobs. I might even stop showering. That would be no good. So, I limit myself to social media and a Netflix account. A guilty pleasure for Wifesy and I is watching an entire season of Homeland or something akin to that.

I WILL be a Wii playing grandma, just more of a ‘casual’ user version…

But, my tendencies aside, this Gaymer evolution has me fascinated. Some industrious geeks even plan to hold a huge convention up in San Francisco this August. I would love to go to that event and tape some interviews. I mean the material and the sheer geekiness would be a Glogger’s (gay blogger’s…) wet dream.

I believe the rising of the Gaymer can only be a good thing for the gaming industry. Chances are the gaymer interest (and convention) will lead to less misogynist story-lines for games or at least a mix of some that are and some that aren’t. We also might see a more interesting hero or two. I’m all for that. To me, video games are stories and we ALL should be included in them.

GaymerCon has been funded and the convention is happening. If you find this idea as interesting as I do, you might want to check out their Kickstarter video I’m posting a link to it…HERE. The geeks – or should we start calling ourselves, GAYEEKS, say it all better than I ever could.

Anyway, what about you? What’s your gaming history?

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Ahhh gaming! What a fun topic! We had multiple versions of the Nintendo (original through 64)

I personally gave up until after college and I got a PS2 and I am completely too un coordinated to do any serious “gaming”

There was a fun game called singstar on PS2 that I loved (think guitar hero but just singing) and actually met my wife at a party playing that game HA

We own a wii and still have the PS2, buth are packed away somewhere for the same reason as you, ipad and tv are distracting enough!

As far as Gaymers… It’s cool if one is a part of that group and enjoy the title, but doesn’t it seem like we have a name or acronym for everything now days… Not sure Ill be able to keep up with all of them as the years go on!

i think the same thing about the million-different-categories-of-ppl subject. but, a bunch of gay nerds getting together to talk gaming… eh, less harm there than anything else. and totally, totally on the video games, i would be homeless like that portlandia sketch where they watch the whole season of battlestar gallactica in one sitting…. looool. as always, loved your comment, tj. xo, sm

I only started gaming about a decade ago. Started out with cutesy RPGs (Legend of Zelda, Kingdom-Hearts-don’t-laugh, Blue Dragon), then moved on to survival horror (Resident Evil series, Project Zero), and currently at morally-ambiguous games with some player-controlled endings (Mass Effect series, Bioshock series, Skyrim, Fallout).

GTA never had much appeal for me. Sorry.

You are spot on about how gaming can take over your life. I played Mass Effect 3 three times when I first got my hands on it. Consecutively. It was not pretty.

well, thank god it wasn’t your computer! i had a vase of flowers and water spill on my computer, killed it. it was awful. perhaps it was all for the best tho? who has time for nintendo when they have a kid…and a blog. loool. xo, sm

I did love playing video games with you, Sweet Sister. GTA blew me away and I was addicted for a small bit of time. But I too agree that it is a huge time sucker. The PS 2 died, my partner and I bought a Wii, and we play it about two days out of the year now!

it would be fun. me, a camera, some gay nerds. heaven. loool. i can totally see that about you and the original nintendo. you’ve got to do a post about it. ppl will love it coming from your pov. xoxo, sm

way back i had a bit of a ‘donkey kong’ problem myself. like really, but that was waaaayyyy back. also great gaming movie and i think you can get it free on youtube – ‘king of kong: fistful of quarters…’ it’s fantastic. and i sucked at pac man. did love centipede tho. thanks for swinging by here and commenting, jeanne. it’s nice to cyber-meet you. xo, sm

I can close my eyes and see my brother playing pong, like it was yesterday. I have no clue whatsoever why I thought that was cool. Teen is a major gamer. She loves Halo and Skyrim. Husband and I loved us some Mario Bros. That was pre-kids, we had time to burn. It was sweet.

Arcades are going the way of the movie rental store, but we have one near us. All games are in increments of nickels, except for the old school ones along the wall which are free. If you spend enough days there and earning enough tickets, you can walk home the proud owner of a very cheap toy.

About 35-40 years ago, my brother and I used to go to a pizza joint called Round Table — for the salad. Yes, we liked their salad. A lot. And it was a simple salad, not a portion that could pack a landfill like what you get today. We wouldn’t touch their pizza. That we’d get at either Toto’s or Pasquale’s. Only gourmet Italian pizza for us. Back at Round Table, as we’d be waiting for our salads, surrounded by people with a taste for crappy cardboard-flavored pizza, we’d play pong. That’s both my and my brother’s history of gaming.

Loved this post Mum. Reminded me of some of the fantastic [gay] friends I made when I first started playing mmo’s. I still keep in casual contact with such friend after 8? 9? years. I guess back then some players were gay and some weren’t but you generally didn’t get to know about it unless you became friends. I really like this new openness, although I have to say there are still an awful lot of 14 year old, bogun d**kheads in every popular mmo.

I LOVE games and I guess I am a “gaymer” but I suck at them, so does that count for anything? I never finish my games because once the controls get too complicated I just move on to something else. “GameFly” was created for people like me. I started with my Atari 2600 and now have my Xbox 360, plus I still like PC games. You would think that being unemployed I would dedicate myself to playing the games I have bought that are still in the wrappers – but alas, responsibility calls.

Yes, a friend of mine had Pong, and that was totally cool at the time. And I played the early text-based games like Adventure. But as the technology expanded to graphics, the games became overwhelmingly unappealing to me because of the stereotyped characterizations, especially of women.

So the few “computer games” I play are standard board, puzzle, and card games. I know. Totally uncool. But that’s me. 🙂

I have to be the worse gamer of any sexual orientation. Pac Man was the thing when I was in college and then along came Ms. Pac Man. I had to give it a try. I was so fascinated with the animation that I would just point and say “look at that” and forget to use the controls.

The 1st console we had in the house was an old PS1 that my dad got at a junk sale. He had the Die Hard game and we were THRILLED! What he DIDN’T get was a memory card so we spent many a frustrating almost to the end…. Start again days lmao. Now I have 2 Xbox 360’s old and new. Ps2 and a zillion old games which are great when we go down memory lane to when we got a console with A MEMORY CARD (which previously we had called the wimp card cos we didn’t have one) I have the playstation 3 it is my den it is my getaway it is sadly my friend hahahaha. After staying awake all night to watch the launch presentation for ps4 I NEED one or I shall surely die (my demise I hope is speedy as I can’t afford one lol)
So you should take me with you Becky D between us we have it covered. I’m a comp/gaming nerd and you caught the gay as my grandmother used to say it. My cousin announced loud and proud he was gay. He’d told my grandmother 1st and he said she was great so she sat there waiting for him to tell the family he only got as far as ‘I have something really special to share with the people closest to me, my family…’ when grandma anticipating a 1930’s/40’s anti gay riot in the living room yelled ‘ DON’T YOU DARE PICK ON HIM JUST COS HE CAUGHT THE GAY’ hmmmm supportive? Well yes. Anyway I digress so me nerd you gay LET’S GO TO THE CONVENTION!!!!!!! Yeyyyyy!!!!!!

Ps I feel me and Toby are to blame for the caught the gay we were joking about it and she may have overheard ….. We were explaining to a homophobe we know you’re born loving the same sex. Then when we got back we were sitting said homophobe saying Toby should have said he was gay and touched his arm shouting TICK you caught the gay :0(

Oh and ps… I have a Wii I don’t know what came over me to buy it. We don’t talk about my shame. But in my defence I did buy manhunt for it so not all bad…. No no its bad… Back to not talking about it lmao

We got an Atari and my Pop started playing it constantly. He loved the game where you jumped on a seesaw and it popped another guy on the other side into the air – that guy would land on the seesaw and pop the first guy back onto the air – a few years ago my nephews got me a mini console with all those original Atari games on it – it’s pretty fun.

I never really played video games as a kid, probably because my mother thought I’d rot my brain. I did play some computer games, but never gave up my life to them. To this day, I still suck fairly hard at video games but enjoy them! Zac bought a gamecube off Ebay for $12 and mariokart is our guilty pleasure.

Sweet Mom i have spen all my childhood playing Mario Brothers and Contra….
i am so bad with modern HD games that my brothers hates it when he sees me playing simple Spiderman2, even though we have NFS, Grand Theft and all the big games… 😛